GREEDY CAPITALISM KILLS –
July 17, 2026 – In 1996, Purdue Pharma launched OxyContin, a potent and addictive narcotic, with a deliberate commercial strategy. OxyContin would enter through the cancer-pain market, where physicians were already accustomed to prescribing opioids, and from there expand into the far larger market for chronic, non-cancer pain. The campaign that followed was aggressive and, as courts have since established, deceptive and criminal: Purdue understated the drug’s addiction risk and has twice pleaded guilty to federal criminal charges over its marketing of OxyContin. But its marketing strategy worked. Prescribing highly addictive narcotics became common practice for moderate and chronic pain, reshaping pain management across the United States. Three decades later, the imprint of that strategy is still visible in America.
